Hey everybody!! Wow, time is just flying by and its a little overwhelming. So much happens in a week that its always so hard to know what to write in these emails. I'm gonna write SS a letter, because I'm so pumped for her. Also, MR is getting murried!!!!! all my friends are dropping like flies! But I love it. Everyone is making such great choices. So proud of my girls.
So I see Elder M every day. He is doing great. Also, dont worry, BY is getting lots of hugs and we have had some great talks. She is handling all of her adversity so gracefully, and I know this timing is happening for a reason. What a miracle that I was able to live so close to her and give her comfort. Such a tender mercy. Okay, so speaking of miracles, I want to share a story with ya'll. As sister training leader, Sister K and I visit all of the girls rooms at night to make sure everyone is doing well (we dont get a lot of sleep with this calling, but I LOVE it). We have a new district of girls that we just did orientation with and some of them were struggling with homesickness but they seemed relatively okay. Then, on Saturday night, we asked a sister how she was doing and she just broke down into tears. We took her out into a quiet place to talk, and she proceeded to tell us that she had never struggled with her testimony, but now she was suddenly beginning to doubt everything, and she felt awful and didn't understand why she should have this happen after making the decision to serve a mission. She was so distraught and Sis K and I kinda looked at each other for a sec like "okay.....what now?" Then, it was go time. I went and got some scriptures and then we just followed the Spirit. It actually kinda reminded me of an investigator lesson a little bit. This sister said that she had never had a struggle, so I explained that everyone has to have a trial of faith at some point in order to grow (watch the Mormon message: The will of God) and that it doesn't make her a bad person. She had begun to wonder if maybe the gospel was all just a fairy tale and that feeling the Spirit is just our own mind convincing us that we are happy.
At that moment, I was so grateful for my own trials of faith that I have had, because it allowed me know exactly how this sister felt. I was able to describe the feelings that she felt, because I had felt them too. I was able to testify that the Spirit is real, because I have felt what it is like not to have it in my heart and there is literally NOTHING else that can compare to the feeling of the Spirit. We promised this sister that if she would only cling to her desire to believe (Alma 32) then God would answer her prayers. For a moment, I felt a little bit like we were promising too much because we promised her that she would hear an answer tomorrow at church and that she would be able to feel the Spirit. That's a lesson I've learned here: don't be afraid to make a promise if the Spirit tells you to. We must have the hope to trust that God will answer a promise that is given by the Spirit. So, we made this promise, and she still felt so lost and doubtful, but then I told her to imagine the most perfect moment in her life. Then, I said " as you picture this moment, can you honestly say that this is a world without miracles?" which of course she said no. I told her that there are miracles every day, but we often fail to recognize them because of our lack of faith and hope. Remember we must have hope before we have faith. I promised that God would perform miracles in her life, whether she recognized them or not, but the more faith we have, the more we can recognize them. I asked her to search for a miracle tomorrow.
So, Sister K and I plopped into bed late that night and prayed our hearts out that our Sister would receive an answer and see God in her life. Guess what! It was crazy, because the talk in Relief Society was dead on, exactly about trials of faith! Yeah, it was awesome and literally addressed all of the issues this sister was facing. I felt it was a huge answer to my prayers and hers and then every talk that day continued to address her very needs so specifically. Okay, now this may sound so small and insignificant. Some of you may be thinking, "a talk. really? that's just coincidence." But first, that topic has never been spoken about the whole time I've been here....and we have a LOT of devotionals. Next, how miraculous that a speaker who has been planning for weeks what she will say would speak the exact words that need to be heard to one sister in a room of hundreds at the EXACT perfect time in her life. In the very moment that she was doubting if God knew she existed, He reached out to her. But not only that, He had planned for this moment and inspired others and weeks ahead of time.....all for just one of His billions of children. Yes, that talked helped everyone I'm sure, but for her, it was probably life changing. Not because of the message, but because it was a direct answer to her prayers, which we had promised her...a bit tentatively, but boy am I glad we did.
I want to promise you that miracles happen every single day. I mean it. Please, everyone, read the talk by Bednar "Character of Christ". It will change your life! But anyway, it talks about faith. We must exercise faith in order to recognize God's hand in our life. Note that I said "recognize", because God is helping us along whether we believe it or not, but it's our responsibility to recognize it. There are miracles in this world. I know it. I have seen so many tiny miracles since being here. God works in small and simple ways, but He truly does bring great things to pass. Look for the tiny miracles every day, and before you know it, bigger ones will happen. Hope for something better than you expect. We all know the saying that we cant have faith with fear, but even more, we cannot have hope if we are too afraid of being let down. Be brave enough to hope for something miraculous. Try to align your will with God's and we can become a part of those miracles. This world is so bright and beautiful. I'm so busy. I'm very tired, and sometimes I feel very discouraged, but these moments give me the realization that I absolutely must rely on God to do what He asks. I will not find happiness until I recognize that I can't do this life on my own. In our weaknesses, God can make us strong, not because we become stronger ourselves, but because when we recognize how weak we are, we also realize that we must rely on the Atonement. We must become one with Christ, and He will become our strength.
I love you all so so so much. Hey everybody at the beach!!! I miss you all. Cousins.....and aunts.....do something crazy and ridiculous in my name, since we all know I can't really do that right now haha.
Okay, gotta run. LOVE yall!
